Show lane reviews aws survey figures F es ten mines in arizona paid in dividends during the past year adding utah montana nevada and idaho dividends to those of arizona we have a total of over in dividends paid out of the mines of these five western states in a single year these are some of the impressive facts brought out by the report of the geological survey to secretary lane just made never before said mr lane has so large a draft been made on the natural resources of our country as during this year and never before have the metals been extracted from these ores with less waste or utilized to better advantage in advancing the general prosperity of the country even as written in the plain figures of 1916 production the wonderful record of our mines sets forth a degree of national industrial independence only hoped for a few years ago increase in copper again copper stands out as the best illustration of how american mines can meet a world demand the output of nearly two billion pounds pound s of the red metal is double that of ten years ago and its value is twice that of the ti e copper produced in 1915 add to this the facts that in value copper now contends with iron for first place among the metals and that together the amount of these two metals produced last year had a value of more than one billion dollars ano ana we have a measure of what this country can contribute in useful metals zinc the output or of zinc from domestic ores increased last year tons which makes a new record for that metal the total value of spelter from united states ore being million dollars lead also shows S how S a large increase i rl the output being a gain of more than 50 per cent coal with all this activity in metal production the coal mines have had to meet a heavy demand so that the bituminous coal output has now passed the half billion ton mark an increase of 1212 12 per cent over the previous year coke production increased 30 per cent and it is gratifying to note that byproduct by product coke made the largest gain which means a corresponding gain in and other valuable products byproducts by oil again the oil wells have given a new record for petroleum yield the estimate of marketed production of crude petroleum for 1916 being million barrels or eleven million barrels more than in 1915 cement another mineral product which furnishes an index of business conditions is cement the 1916 production of which is estimated to be five million barrels in excess of the output of the previous year while the shipments were even greater aggregating barrels with the outlook reported as good for the new year western states gain the reports received from the surveys western offices contain most significant min ing records every western state shows a large increase in yield of metals arizona leading with a gain of million dollars over last year while utah and montana together report another million dollar gain alaska also had its best year contributing a total value of more than this year or over 50 per cent in excess of any previous year these advance statements not only show that 1916 marks a new advance for the mineral industry of the country but this remarkable increase promises to be approximately 25 per cent over the 1915 production so that we may expect the final figures to show a total of three billion dollars |